There’s no mistaking 2023 for anything else: this has been the year of AI. That’s been especially true for Google, which devoted the bulk of its I/O keynote in May to discussing upcoming AI tools, including Duet. Today, Duet AI is launching for all of Google’s various Workspace-branded apps (at a fairly eye-popping price, no less), but one look at its features list makes it clear that its Meet integration is where it shines the brightest.

As detailed by Google, Duet AI is capable of all sorts of tasks and tricks when integrated with Meet — in fact, you might be able to skip out on meetings for the rest of your life. The biggest feature highlighted today is the ability for Duet to join a call in your place, simply by selecting “attend for me” on any Calendar invite you receive.

Source: Google

It’s a little unclear exactly how Google will bring your own thoughts and opinions into the meeting, though. Its own blog post simply states it “deliver(s) your message and ensure(s) you get the recap,” while The Verge notes Duet will auto-generate text about what you may want to discuss. Where it’s generating these suggestions from, however, is a little confusing. Here at Android Police, we have a weekly all-hands meeting simply called “all-hands meeting.” It’s a recurring event on our internal calendar, and I’m a little unsure what Duet would even suggest as topics for it to bring up in my place. Presumably, submitting your own questions and topics is a possibility.

Source: Google

The Verge also has an answer to the most obvious question here: yes, if everyone in a call sends their AI double to an unplanned 8 AM meeting, Meet will end the call. While a demo of this tool could solve all of our questions, we’ll be waiting a while to try this feature out for ourselves. It’ll arrive as a Labs feature sometime in 2024.

But while that might be the coolest tech being announced for Meet today, it’s far from the only tool Duet is delivering. Automated notes — effectively providing you with real-time minutes for the meeting you’re currently attending — are coming later this year, complete with full video snippets when necessary. It’ll even provide you with a list of what’s already happened in the call if you’re late through a “summary so far” tool, which Google calls a “snapshot of everything (you’ve) missed.”

Source: Google

Duet will also improve all of the visual and auditory elements that make Meet what it is today. Improved lighting and sound — studio quality, according to Google’s blog post — should make even the worst microphone a little easier on the ears. Meanwhile, dynamic tiles and face detection will emphasize groups of people on a single call (think of those gathered around a single conference room table), along with automatic translated captions with support for eighteen different languages. Combined with those AI-generated backgrounds we saw teased earlier this year, it’s clear Meet is a focal point for the technology.

Frankly, Google is already way ahead of the competition here. Any regular Meet user who has recently joined a call on Zoom or Microsoft Teams knows Meet has become a seriously impressive tool. With Duet, the company’s looking to leapfrog over those apps in a play to own the business sphere. But with many of these tools on the horizon before they’re available for anyone paying for AI, we’ll have to wait a while longer before figuring out if they’re worth it.